a very very awesome piece!!! With all the due respect I think MT was the Witchblade series, so it's hard to get that same special feeling with all the character he began to draw first, before any other artist. With all that said, you're still one of my favorite!

wow. this reminds me of this piece you did, well, character design you did for Rising Stars? it was one of the bad guys i think. Prophet? He looked all raggety and had all these bandages around his arms. it was featured in the preview issue i think.I remember it clearly and is to this day one of the most influential images. I was just opening up into art, comic art and that character design struck me. It was very motivational. In fact... i copied (not traced, there was at least a slight bit of dignity lol) copied that design and carried it in my sketchbook. People would ask "you drew that" and i'd say... "ummm, sorta. I copied it, from this book. " then they'd all say, meh, copy cat. lol this led me to learning anatomy... or least taking steps towards learning, as im still learning. the memories of a child. lol thanks again, for the inspiration.

true story--> way back in the day i was at a wizard world con in pittsburgh, pa, which was a stop on Mike's fathom usa tour at the time, and he was jamming out quick sketches for fans... witchblade, fathom, witchblade, fathom... and when i got up there, i asked for a quick sketch and he said who was my favorite character? so i asked who was his favorite character? we both kinda starred at each other until finally i said, well, i think nottingham is a total badass, so how about Ian. Mike looked at me and said, you know, no one ever asks for Ian, and he was pretty much one of my favorite characters from witchblade, nottingham it is!

Awesome facial expression through use of minimalist techniques. What the heck do you call this type of shading? Do you draw out the lines of the character and then the shadow lines? This is very reminiscent of Yoji Shinkawa's Metal Gear work in the face with some DC or Marvel style use of black and whites in the rest of the design. Very nice.

It's cool you noticed that. It's kind of a blend between manga and american styles. I kind of drew things as I went. Sometimes the shadows and sometimes the line, but I do feel more confident with my linework.